THE COST OF CHILDCARE IN THE US!

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The Cost of Unregulated Child Care 
Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) throughout the country report that due to the high cost of care, some families choose to move their children from licensed programs to informal/unlicensed child care settings.  Although child care in informal situations may be an affordable arrangement in the short run, there may be hidden costs that are paid later. Unlicensed care is not subject to basic health and safety requirements, minimum training requirements or background checks for providers. Unlicensed care is also not inspected.  The parents are the only ones checking the home for health and safety standards.  How many parents are willing to ask a friend to let them inspect the cupboard under the sink for poisons or ask for a criminal history check? 

School readiness only becomes evident when children enter kindergarten.  Many states in the US including New York has consistently found that children who have experience in regulated programs do better when they enter kindergarten than children who had child care in informal settings.  

Many states allow informal care to operate legally. 

• Twenty-seven states do not require a license for home providers until five or more children are cared for in the home. 

• Eight states allow family child care providers to care for six or more children for pay without a license or any oversight.

• In 11 states, it is illegal to provide care for even one child for compensation without a license  and monitoring.  

Why Child Care Costs are High?
Child care is a small service-oriented business, like a restaurant or a beauty salon.

• Early care and education is a very labor intensive industry Up to 80 percent of the cost in a child care program is for payroll and payroll-related expenses.
• Teachers with strong professional preparation are essential to providing a high quality early learning program. Adult-child interactions are the most powerful predictors of children’s development and learning.  

Other business expenses for child care centers and family child care providers include:

• Rent/mortgage
  
• Food
  
• Insurance (business, liability, real estate, worker’s compensation)

Other necessary costs include:

• Facilities maintenance
  
• Fire alarms/security 
  
• Marketing
  
• Professional services (lawyers, accountants, health consultants)
• Staff training/professional development
  
• Supplies 
  
• Taxes
  
• Toys and equipment
  
• Transportation
  
• Utilities 
  

State licensing regulations govern issues related to children's health and safety while they are in childcare:

• Group size – the number of children that can be in one group. 
  
• Ratios – the number of children for each adult. Staff education and training.
  
• Square footage – the number of square feet required in the building and on the playground for each child.
  
• Activities and materials – the types of activities and material that support children’s academic, physical, social and emotional growth and school readiness.

• Health, safety and nutrition – the practices that keep children healthy, safe and well-fed.  For example, regulations require safety drills, certain types of evacuation cribs, resilient playground surfaces under outdoor equipment and safe storage of hazardous materials. 

Unfortunately, Commercial Programs are forced to make compromises to balance what they think parents can afford with financial considerations about the quality of the care they provide:

• With limited funds, child care programs are forced to pay low staff wages and limited benefits, making it difficult to recruit and retain qualified staff.  The staff turnover rate in child care in 2010 was reported to be around 25 percent.  That means that a quarter of the child care providers parents see at the beginning of the year will not be there at the end of the year. 

• Having one adult be responsible for a smaller number of children allows children to get more individualized attention, but low staff:child ratios means hiring more staff.  Registered in home daycares are mandated to keep the low 1:6 ratio at all times, with no more that 2 infants per one adult.  So at no time will one adult be caring for more than 2 infants.  
• A smaller group size is better for children’s development, but more children in a group means a higher income for the program. The maximum children a registered in-home facility can care for is 12 non-school age children with 2 adults always present.  
  
  
• Providing a curriculum and diverse materials and learning activities help promote children’s learning and readiness for school, but they require provider training and additional expenses (and let me tell you some of these curriculums can be quite expensive).  
  
  
• Health and safety practices protect children, but they also require provider training and additional expenses.  

Because in-home daycare usually don't have the same overhead as a commercial daycare, these compromises do not have to be made by home childcare providers.  

• A smaller group size is better for children’s development, but more children in a group means a higher income for the program.
  
• Providing a curriculum and diverse materials and learning activities help promote children’s learning and readiness for school, but they require provider training and additional expenses.  (and these curriculums can be very expensive!) 
  
• Health and safety practices protect children, but they also require provider training and additional expenses.
  

Child care costs are what they are — and there is not a lot of “fat” that can be trimmed without impacting any programming.  It is important to maintain the regulations we do have – particularly around ratios and teacher preparation—if we want to achieve quality of care.   We expect this in K-12 education, why not in early education?As the owner of my own In-home Childcare facility,  I do not want to compromise the quality of care I provide.  I am currently using Mother Goose Time Curriculum which costs me over $100/month.  Mother Goose Time not only meets but exceeds the national standards as defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, NAEYC, giving parents the assurance that their preschooler is not just attending a "babysitting" program.  By the time your child leaves my program, you can rest assure that I have done my absolute best to have them ready for kindergarten.  

As a full time working mother when my son was attending a private commercial daycare, I understand the issue we as working parents are faced with when it comes to paying for childcare.  But I can tell you that I would have never thought of placing my child in any facility (home or commercial), that would compromise his safety, that was just non-negotiable.    Let me be clear here, I truly understand how financial issues may back some parents up against the proverbial  wall, yes, we all have to do what we have to do for our children.  Lets just do our best to keep them safe!